UAB HEAD COACH MURRY BARTOW: Murry Bartow (UAB, 1985) is in his 5th season as head coach of the Blazers. He has a 81-59 (.579) overall mark and is 35-30 (.538) in C-USA games. Bartow has taken the Blazers to postseason action in three of his first four seasons and has compiled a pair of 20-plus win campaigns. UAB captured the 1999 Conference USA National Division title and made the program's 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the first for UAB since 1994.

UNDER MURRY BARTOW: The Blazers have ...
* made 3 postseason visits in 4 years
* posted back-to-back 20-victory seasons during the 1997-98 & 1998-99 campaigns (the 1st since 1992-93 & 93-94)
* reached the C-USA Tournament semifinals in 3 of 4 seasons
* has led one of only five C-USA schools to at least 70 victories over the last four seasons
* led UAB to first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999, the first trip since 1994
* averaged 18.3 wins per season over his first four campaigns

OPENING HALF SCORING PROBLEMS: The Blazers were held to a school-record low tying 15 points Saturday in the opening half against Southern Miss. That mark tied the 15 points scored by the Blazers last season at Charlotte (Mar. 4) and against Cincinnati (1/23/93) during the 1992-93 campaign.

THE NEXT TWO GAMES ON ROAD: The Blazers will be trying to snap a two-game losing streak as they play their next two games on the road -- both coming this week. Following the UC contest, UAB travels to New Orleans Saturday to face Tulane in a 7 p.m. contest.

JANUARY GAMES: The Blazers hold a overall 113-77 (.595) record during the month of January. Overall, UAB is 445-263 (.629) in its 23rd season of basketball.

BARTOW ANNOUNCES RANSOM AND FINLEY TO REDSHIRT: UAB coach Murry Bartow recently announced both Myron Ransom and Morris Finley will redshirt this season due to injury. Ransom, a senior from Birmingham, tore his ACL in his right knee in a game over the summer, while the sophomore Finley from LaFayette, Ala., sustained a fractured vertebra in his back earlier this fall.

BALL IS BACK: Sophomore Sidney Ball, who had also been sidelined with a knee problem, returned to practice Dec.28 and saw his first action since the season opener (6 pts., 8 reb. vs. Alabama A&M) with four points and three rebounds in seven minutes against Tulane (1/7). Ball also saw action against Houston and posted a season-high 16 minutes against Southern Miss.

AGAINST THE BEARCATS: The Blazers will look to snap a five-game losing streak to Cincinnati as the two schools meet for the 17th time on the hardwood. UAB is 1-7 against the Bearcats in the city of Cincinnati and 1-6 in the Shoemaker Center including four straight losses there. The last win at UC came on Jan. 9, 1994, when the Blazers pulled off a 67-65 decision. UAB's last win in the series came Jan. 21, 1996, when they captured a 70-68 triumph at Bartow Arena. The last time out against the Bearcats, UAB lost to the then No.1-ranked UC squad 93-80 in front of a Bartow Arena record-crowd of 9,279.

REBOUNDING MARGIN: This season the Blazers are outrebounding their opponents by a margin of 4.5 per contest as they have accumulated 39.7 boards per game. Twice this season, UAB has had a 20-plus rebounding advantage coming against Texas Tech (+21) and Tulane (+22).

LINEUP CHANGES: Through the first 15 games, the Blazers have started six different lineups and eight UAB players have made at least one start. Only senior LeAndrew Bass and junior Eric Batchelor have started every game.The most used lineup for UAB has been Bass and Tony Johnson at guard, Batchelor and David Walker at forward and Will Campbell at center. That lineup has been used six times during the season.

THE ROSTER: The Blazers return eight players from last year's squad, while welcoming six newcomers into the fold. Of the 14 players on the preseason 2000-2001 roster, seven hail from the state of Alabama, while three call Tennessee home, along with two from Kentucky, one from New York and one from Serbia. The roster lists five seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen.

SPREADING THE WEALTH: For the first time all season, UAB had just one player score in double figures as LeAndrew Bass had 20 points in its loss to Southern Miss. In all but one other game this season, the Blazers have had at least three players score in double digits and enjoyed a season-high five players scoring at least 10 points against Murray State (12/8).

BASS IS SIXTH IN CAREER ASSISTS: Senior LeAndrew Bass moved into sixth place on the UAB career chart for assists Jan. 3 against Alcorn State with four and then made a big jump toward fifth place with a career-best 13 against Tulane. Bass now has his sights on fifth place and needs 52 to overtake Michael Charles who notched 403 from 1984 to 1988.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES FOR THE BLAZERS: Twice this season UAB has had a pair of players collect double-doubles. David Walker (19 pts., 13, reb.) and Will Campbell (19 pts., 2 reb.) achieved that feat against Tulane (1/7), while Campbell and LeAndrew Bass combined for the first duo double-double of the season against Virginia Commonwealth (12/30). Campbell notched 11 points and 12 rebounds in that game, while Bass recorded the first double-double of his career with 14 points and a career-best 11 rebounds against the Rams.

MORE ON THE DOUBLE-DOUBLES: David Walker leads the team with four of UAB's eight double-doubles including two in the Nike Festival in Hawai'i. For his career, Walker has notched 10 double-doubles, including a career-tying 20 points and career-best 13 rebounds against Hawai'i (12/23).

ALL-TIME HOME RECORD: UAB has collected a 148-31 record (.827) at Bartow Arena in its 13th season in the facility. UAB was 11-2 in the building last season and has won at least 10 games there in all but one campaign. In all-time home games, the Blazers are 281-67 (.807).

GAME TIME CHANGE: The Feb. 3 game slated at Southern Mississippi has been moved from 5 to 3 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN Regional television. The USM game is one of three ESPN Regional telecasts for the Blazers slated for broadcast. The other two are at South Florida (Feb. 10) and at DePaul (Feb. 24).

COACHES SHOW TIME CHANGE: The Murry Bartow Show will air on Friday evenings at 8:30 p.m. on Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast. It will also be replayed on the following Tuesday at 5 p.m. The show had originally been slated for 5:30 p.m.

THE LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL: The UAB men's basketball team has been picked to finish third in the National Division of Conference USA by the league's 12 coaches in their annual preseason poll. The Bearcats of Cincinnati have been picked to win their sixth straight league championship in 2000-2001, while South Florida junior forward B.B. Waldon garnered the preseason Player of the Year nod. Waldon collected 17.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game for the Bulls last season.

NON-CONFERENCE HOME AFFAIRS: After defeating Alcorn State on Jan. 3, UAB has now captured 10 of the last 11 non-conference games at Bartow Arena and Murry Bartow is 27-3 (.900) against non-conference foes in the Arena.

NEXT OPPONENT: UAB completes its two-game road swing Saturday with a 7 p.m. contest at Tulane. The Blazers opened C-USA play with the Green Wave and captured a 98-76 victory at Bartow Arena earlier this month. The Blazers now lead the series 8-6 after snapping a three-game losing streak to the Wave. In New Orleans, UAB is 3-3 against Tulane.